Ever had a quarter that looked like once it was painted red, but most of it had rubbed off?

There are many reasons people painted some quaters red, but one reason is as 'House quarters' back in the early days of arcades and before that, coin op games in general (before things mostly switched to tokens). These were house money used to test machines by the attendant. At the end of the day, any red quarters in a machine were not revenue. The attendants probably used them to play free games themselves too.

Ever had a quarter that looked like once it was painted red, but most of it had rubbed off?

There are many reasons people painted some quaters red, but one reason is as 'House quarters' back in the early days of arcades and before that, coin op games in general (before things mostly switched to tokens). These were house money used to test machines by the attendant. At the end of the day, any red quarters in a machine were not revenue. The attendants probably used them to play free games themselves too.

Thats pretty cool. I have had red quarters in the past and had no idea about this. Thanks for the share.

I love stories like this! I also love that old picture of Aladdin's Castle. What city is that from?It reminds me of something in the mall in Dawn of the Dead. I expect a bunch of zombies to come pouring out of that place!

Something fun for fans of an 80s scifi movie, The Last Starfighter. This was an arcade game in production by Atari in 1984 - not a good year for Atari. The movie has an arcade game, Starfighter, which is, unknown to our hero, really a gunner simulation for an actual space fighter. The Atari arcade game was never finished, but there are numerous scenes of the game (and space combat that looks like the game.) Its raster graphics with polygons. I have heard that if Atari had tried to make this a working arcade game, it would have been a ten thousand dollar unit. Many a kid left the theater and wanted to drop some allowance on Starfighter.

The fun part is fans went ahead and made a game that looks like Starfighter. The video above shows some game play. Supposedly they released it for free - possibly because they don't have any rights to the voices and images used. There is an Atari 8 bit game for Last Starfighter. It looks nothing like the movie, but videos show what looks like a decent little Star Raiders kind of game.

Many old arcade games used a CRT for a monitor. There are very few manufacturers now making new 29" CRT screens for classic arcade games. CRTs have a shelf life, so eventually older ones will need those CRTs repaired, or replaced with LEDs that simulate a CRT.

These leads to the debate of whether this is an issue. Do we need CRTs anymore? It can get a bit technical with talk about refresh rates, input lag, how black the black is, viewing angles, phosphor glow, phoshor shelf life and screen 'burn in', etc. I will say that if you ever sit down and play a vector beam arcade game like Tail Gunner (1979), the strong vibrant glow of the game on the screen is part of how it makes its impact as a game.

For an article on looking at the differences, see http://bogost.com/games/a_television_simulator which looks at emulating a CRT. It talks about the differences in texture, the afterimage, color bleed, and noise. All this helps colors blend, sprites look less blocky and sharp. The flickering ghosts of Pac Man just don't work as well off a CRT. Here is {edit} Activision's Enduro. Notice the sunset on the right, and how much more complete the car sprite looks.

Something fun for fans of an 80s scifi movie, The Last Starfighter. This was an arcade game in production by Atari in 1984 - not a good year for Atari. The movie has an arcade game, Starfighter, which is, unknown to our hero, really a gunner simulation for an actual space fighter. The Atari arcade game was never finished, but there are numerous scenes of the game (and space combat that looks like the game.) Its raster graphics with polygons. I have heard that if Atari had tried to make this a working arcade game, it would have been a ten thousand dollar unit. Many a kid left the theater and wanted to drop some allowance on Starfighter.

The fun part is fans went ahead and made a game that looks like Starfighter. The video above shows some game play. Supposedly they released it for free - possibly because they don't have any rights to the voices and images used. There is an Atari 8 bit game for Last Starfighter. It looks nothing like the movie, but videos show what looks like a decent little Star Raiders kind of game.

There was a "The Last Starfighter" for the NES that was actually a lackluster port of the C64 game Uridium. What a scam that I'm sure resulted in some disappointed kids who expected a game that resembled the film.

This came up - Ed Fries' search for a very early Atari arcade Easter Egg, in Starship 1 by programmer Ron Milner. Milner tied it to the coin drop and controls. A fun story first using MAME, but later a surviving arcade machine.

So, take command of the Starship Atari and enjoy a bit of video game archeology.